Climbing with new people, part 3

(The wall with Electric Blue on it)

I know it says part 3 above, but this is actually the first one I'm writing, only because it's the clearest in my memory. I spent the weekend climbing with Becki Hughes on the sea cliffs along the Anglesey coastline. In terms of mileage or quantity we didn't get much done, but that didn't really matter and the routes that were done have been long standing ambitions of mine and the situations were amazing. 

The weekend started with a skin full of beer and good music on the Friday night, which isn't exactly the right way to prepare for an early start. As you can imagine Saturday morning was awash with tea, painkillers, a late start and slow drive. Due to one reason (alcohol) stomachs were not up to much more than dry hurling so we spent the afternoon just sat on the rocks at Porth Da frach, just above muscle beach trying to get some sea air. 


It wasn't until the evening that we really got moving. We some food in our stomach and more tea we decided to take a walk along the cliff top of Rhoscolyn. I wanted to show Bec The line of Electric blue as she has a poster of it on her wall. We took the gear as well, just in case like. Normally I'd have been chomping at the big to get some climbing done as we'd had excellent weather all day long but after spending the week climbing indoors and at Ramshaw the day before my fingers were in a sorry state. The rest was quite welcome.


It was near 2000 by the time we got to the top of Electric Blue, which was bathed in such a beautiful golden glow. I wished so much that I had the stones to lead it as it just looks like such an amazing route. I know people do it as a deep water solo but I know I've not got the head for that and either way I'm not really a fan of getting wet. Knowing me I'd fluff the last move and end up with a 30 metre plus fall into cold water. Not really my idea of fun. Instead, and as it had been pretty dry all day we scrambled in to climb Truant (VS 4b) another route that I've been wanting to do for ages. It's always had some seepage (it always does) but I've used this as an excuse to justify not doing it on so many occasions. Like always it was damp, but this time I didn't really matter.

And then the fun began. Becki climbs well. I've been bouldering indoors and out with her for ages, but I've never shared a rope with her outdoors. She's also not belayed much on double ropes or ever been sea cliff climbing. Adding all this together could have made for a minor epic, but it didn't. What it did do was make me realise how much I've learnt over the years, probably from climbing with Soames and other more experienced people, and how much I do without realising.


We scrambled in and I put Bec on a rope for the final section, not that she needed it but it made sense just to be safe. We both stood on the little ledge while I faffed around building a belay and getting the ropes sorted before I could set off. Before long there wasn't much else to do other than start climbing, so I had to go, leaving Bec stood on the ledge on her own. I know when I stood belaying I spend a lot of time worrying about the climber above me, but when I'm down by the sea get to add worrying about getting wet to that list. I'd explained why you build a belay at the base (rogue waves, large sweeps etc) and I was hopeing none of this would befoul her. Leading I was just engrossed in the climbing. Being as it was slightly damp it became a game to avoid using the wet holds at all cost. This made the climbing much more throught provoking and interesting. The climb itself was awesome. There was some offwidthy chimneying, slab climbing and just some odd moves. Because the corner overhangs slightly, whilst being slabby at the same time it's gives a real feel of the 3D climbing you find on main cliff. 

I topped out to the sun sitting about an inch above the horizon, blasting out an orange glow from beneath the band of cloud that had formed above it. It was pretty amazing and it's been something I've been wanting to do for a while now.  My belay was built quickly and efficiently though I ended up using four anchors just because they where all less than perfect. I yelled "on belay" and Bec could start climbing, and I could start my worrying again. What if she didn't get up the route? What if she freaked out? What if? What if? What if? The the ropes managed to slip into a crack on the face and threatened to get stuck. 


As it turned out she had no problems what so ever, apart from avoiding the damp sections of rock and getting her chalk bag caught. She'd disappeared from view behind a bulge of rock only to reappear, with a broad smile across her face. I told her to hurry up so she could enjoy the sunset.

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Sunday morning had all the makings of an early start, my alarm went off at 0600am or something stupid and we'd drunk nothing but tea the night before. However this didn't stop us taking a lie in and spending most of the morning drinking more tea before we got moving. The plan for today was to try a route on Gogarth's Main Cliff and I already had a route in mind, Scavenger (HVS 5a. Sadly we managed to forget the camera so there is no photos from the climbing.

We geared up where everyone for main cliff gears up. We neglected to take our shoes for the walk out, just because I couldn't be bothered with the extra weight and after taking on more water than I should off we scrambled. Drinking that extra water turned out to be a good decision! Again climbing with someone new had started to pray on my mind a little. The route itself requires you to traverse along the bottom of main cliff, just a few feet above the ocean, something which I'd not done this before and I wasn't too sure where the route actually started. As it happened finding the route wasn't too bad and drinking all that water paid off. 


I basically needed to pee, thus involved taking off my rock boots and down climbing closer to the ocean. No only did I get a lower leg soaking, but when I carried on traversing across I got soaked again, the whole time with my shoes clipped safely to my harness, nice and dry. 

Pitch 1 was pretty simple, only 10 metres of 4b climbing to a good ledge.I led it and then brought Beck up and we arranged the rope so I could lead the next pitch. This was the big one supposedly. The crux was just above the belay but it didn't provide me with and real problems. I think the rope management was more of a issue with me down climbing to put longer runners on. I still ended up with a little drag but it didn't really matter. The next section was great, just nice simple climbing up a shallow corner crack. I filled it with gear arriving at the belay with only a single runner left and set about making myself safe.


After puzzling with gear and pulling off a medium sized rock I finally yelled I was safe. This was one of those climbs that I love me guide plate on. I had no doubt that Bekki would get up the pitch (there wasn't much choice as I wasn't abseiling back down) so I could just chill out with some stress free belaying and enjoy the scenery. I was also gifted 2 wires from this belay which must have been left behind by some poor soul who wasn't as driven as me to rescue stuck gear. Bekki had little problem following that pitch (unsurprisingly) and we took it easy as we swapped the gear. The next couple of pitches were reasonably easy but with a little loose rock on them and we managed to get topped out pretty quickly. 


It was at this point I regretted not bringing my shoes. The barefoot walk out wasn't bad until we both ended up with stabby little pieces of gorse in our feet. In all reality I guess I could have carried them up with me, but you live and learn... I'll probably neglect to carry them next time anyway.

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Well as weekends go I had a pretty awesome time. I've been wanting to get down to the base of main cliff for a long time, just haven't had someone to go with. I've also wanted to so a climb on one of the Welsh sea-cliffs and top out at sunset. It's also been pretty cool to climb with someone new. 

I basically can't wait to get back there. 

(Shadows on the fin in fallen block zawn)